


All for the Roses

by Snow



Category: Deathstalker - Simon R. Green
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:17:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stuart doesn't believe in endings (or even necessarily permanent happiness) but he's always believed in doing what's expected of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All for the Roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sithwitch13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sithwitch13/gifts).



> I owe a large debt to those people who agreed to beta this: antumbral and meganbmoore. Thank you!

Stuart understands the rule of one Paragon from each world, and it used to make sense. It ensured that no world was going to have extra influence on Logres, as well as demanding equal contribution to society from everyone. However, with the universe looking like it does, Stuart doesn't think the rule is sufficient or beneficial.

"Your Majesty," he says, bowing formally, even though it's just Douglas and him, away from the pomp and ceremony of the throne. Stuart had considered going through a formal request for his King's time, but then he'd glanced at the length of time it took to receive an audience, and decided it would just be easier on everybody if he brought up the subject the next time Douglas wanted to play cards.

"Stuart?" Douglas asks. "There's really no need-"

Stuart would usually be more concerned about how bloody carefully Douglas is choosing his words, as if he is afraid the wrong ones might make Stuart snap. Instead, Stuart straightens, and speaks his opinion. "I think-and Lewis agreed when I spoke with him-that considering the state of affairs of everything, it might be best if there were more Paragons around. With that in mind, I ask you, as my sovereign and as my friend, to allow Parliament to hear my petition to increase the number of Paragons allowed from any given world to three." Stuart has thought of other reforms, but has no other ideas which are as well developed or which need addressing now.

Douglas considers the deck of cards in his hand, now rather thoroughly shuffled, then turns his attention back to Stuart. "Agreed."

Stuart lets his gratitude tilt the corners of his mouth up into a smile, and sinks into the chair across the table from his King. "Great. To start, well. I don't think it would be fair to start anywhere other than Virimonde."

Douglas nods his support as he deals the first three cards to each of them. "Lewis and," Douglas pauses, like he's trying to figure out if it's worth the time to be able to label the couple. Stuart waits patiently: he's not so much of an idiot as to draw attention to that wound. "They're going to take advantage of the Parliamentary election to visit the Standing and start rebuilding it."

Stuart picks up his cards, making a face as he picks up an Ace and immediately discards it. "Oh. Right. I can wait until they return."

"You can go with them, you know. That's all I meant."

Stuart shakes his head. "I should stay on Logres. To protect you in the absence of your Champion, if nothing else." Though there's a lot of else. Stuart has noticed Douglas' need to surround himself with people, and even if it's not a need he's about to admit holding himself, Stuart can't just abandon his King. Besides, more time will let him figure out what exactly he means to do.

* * *

"You can't go alone," Jas replies when Stuart raises the topic with him. The two of them are sitting in their apartment, and Stuart is trying to avoid the meat Jas has served for dinner without making it obvious he's doing so, and Jas is trying to pretend he doesn't notice. They're both so used to pretending life is normal that Stuart almost regrets his intrusion of reality into their relationship.

"This is something I need to do," Stuart says. "I love you," and Stuart is shocked to realize that this is the first time he's told Jas this, and he suddenly considers that maybe Jas and Douglas are right-there are some things he can rely on his friends for. "But I need to make sure I'm not just being swept away by events."

"Honey, that's exactly why you don't need to be alone."

"I won't be," Stuart assures Jas. "I just want to go home without a physical reminder of how much everyone has changed. I want to deal with how the place changed and separate that from how I've changed. It's not that I don't want to show you my home-if there's any of it left I will be glad to, some other time-it's just that I need to find all the pieces before I can start connecting them." Stuart spears a turnip with his fork and chews it slowly, trying to give Jas the same chance to speak that Jas afforded him.

Jas doesn't seem to have anything to say, and Stuart finally glances up from his dinner to see Jas watching him carefully. Stuart smiles, trying to provide all the assurance he can that he can do this, that he needs to do this, and Jas gives a tiny nod in response. Stuart lets out a breath he's been holding so long that his head was starting to hurt. "It'll be some time before I head out," he promises, and peppers the rest of their meal with similar assurances. It isn't until they're cleaning the dishes that Stuart realizes the one fact he's taken as a given hasn't been stated. "I'll miss you," he says quietly over the sound of running water as Jas hands him a plate to dry.

"Yeah. Me too."

Stuart places the plate in the cupboard, leans forward to turn off the tap, and hands Jas his towel before engulfing the other man in a hug. "I told you, I won't be going for at least two weeks."

"So I have two weeks to convince you to let me come with."

Stuart smiles because he knows Jas is only a tiny bit serious. "Sounds like a plan."

Jas nods. "I'm thinking brownies."

* * *

Adrian is waiting when Stuart stumbles alone out of the ship and onto Virimonde. Stuart waits as his eyes adjust to daylight, then runs forward, catching Adrian in a hug. "Dad."

Adrian returns the hug of the man who looks like he's been through too much and grown too old to possibly be his son. Stuart extracts himself from the hug long before Adrian is ready to let him go, and starts to talk before Adrian can get in a question or greeting.

"You still teaching?"

"Definitely. More to classes than individual tutoring. Why? Not looking to steal my students, are you?"

Stuart nods seriously. "I am. King Campbell put me in charge of recruiting new Paragons."

"You can have multiple Paragons from one world now?"

Stuart shrugs. "Sure. Why not? I'm just making up a new system as I go, to try to re-establish the reputation of the Paragons. I was thinking three per world, so two more from Virimonde."

"Lianne and Jack."

"Right, I'll-"

Adrian laughs. "Don't worry, I was intending to introduce you to them first."

* * *

Stuart watches Jack and Lianne fence. Jack strikes low, his hair flopping over his forehead as another drop of sweat rolls down his face. Lianne, half a foot taller than him, steps backward to block the blow and sweep Jack's sword aside before stepping back towards him with an attack. They're both still quite a bit rough, but good. And it's not their fault if sometimes when Stuart looks at Lianne he sees Emma, because, really, she's not that similar.

His father, as much as he's pretending he doesn't care whether or not his students meet with Stuart's approval, clearly put a lot of time into training them. "They train together frequently?" Stuart asks, because he can tell.

"Yes, they do. There are definite disadvantages to doing so, but it's been an interesting experiment."

"You can stop," Stuart tells Jack and Lianne as the sound of clashing swords grows less frequent. The two fall apart, relishing each breath but not gasping for it. They head for a drink of water together, casting glances Stuart's way when they think he won't notice.

"What do you think of them?" Adrian asks, giving up the pretense of being unconcerned.

"Hmm?" Stuart asks, because he's been thinking of their behavior and another problem entirely. "They're good, I guess."

"You guess?" Adrian rumbles back before Stuart can no longer hide his grin.

"They're great, Dad, honestly. I just wonder if they're interested."

* * *

Lianne actually draws Stuart into a hug when he asks if she would like to go to Logres to train as a Paragon. Stuart laughs with a lightness he doesn't feel and gently steps out of the hug. Lianne, not remotely fazed, hugs Jack and Adrian instead.

Jack returns Lianne's hug, but doesn't initiate any of his own. Adrian leans over and ruffles his son's hair when no one is looking.

"When are we leaving?" Lianne asks when she's calmed down some and is bouncing less.

"You two are free to come whenever you're ready, hopefully within the next ten days, though, just so we can start the training. I will be heading back separately, since I need to be on Logres for-"

"Can we come with?" Lianne asks. "I can be ready in an hour."

Stuart looks at his Dad, then at Jack, who shrugs, and for a moment Stuart thinks the other man is just as baffled about Lianne's enthusiasm as he is. Then Jack speaks. "I'm ready now."

Stuart waits to reply until he can do so without laughing at them and their eagerness to save the universe and become heroes before teatime. "I'm not leaving until tomorrow, actually. But you are most welcome to join me for my return voyage then."

"You seem surprised," Adrian tells Stuart when Lianne and Jack leave, giggling like schoolchildren. Schoolchildren with swords on their hips and more experience behind them than Stuart had had when he became Virimonde's Paragon.

"I didn't think anyone was enthusiastic about the cause of the Paragon," Stuart answers, with a sigh.

"Virimonde's been expecting something like Finn." And Adrian pretends not to notice Stuart's flinch; he pretends he doesn't want to apologize that he couldn't protect his son. "For a while now. So when Lewis asked for our help, we were ready. Lianne and Jack were part of that, they know what it's like to have a world resting on their shoulders, and they still want to do it. They'll make excellent Paragons."

"Yeah. Hopefully. One question. Is it going to be a problem if the two of them end up on different worlds?"

"Hmm? No, I don't think so."

"Great," Stuart says, and if the word comes out stiffer than he'd planned he doesn't notice, too busy with the plan forming in his head. "Thanks."

* * *

After delivering Lianne and Jack to Logres and giving them permission to sightsee (and instructions to help with the reconstruction once they have seen enough), Stuart slips away from Jas' well-intentioned concern and heads to Kaurobe. He isn't greeted with cheers or a parade when he arrives, but the hotel has his reservation, which is worth a lot more to him. He feels more useful than he has in a while, and he's happy.

Stuart clings to the feeling with something like desperation when he visits what used to be the home of Kaurobe's Paragon instructor. The ashes went cold a while ago, but no one has bothered to clean up the wreckage of the house. It is, Stuart thinks, a safety hazard and a hell of a depressing site. "What happened here?" he asks the woman standing quietly at the side, gazing at the house.

She nods at him and runs a hand through brown hair made frizzy by the rain. "A mob," she says finally. "And if you're looking for Neil he died in that house."

"I'm so sorry," Stuart says. "He was your father?"

"No," she says, but she looks more amused than offended. "Brother-in-law. So I take it you weren't a friend?"

"No, I wasn't. Listen, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I'll just go now."

"It's all right," the woman says. "You're fine."

"Right." Stuart waits, a little lost for what to do now that he isn't expected to leave but he cannot meet with Neil.

"I'm Sashi," the woman says, taking pity on him.

"Stuart."

"Lennox?" Sashi asks, turning to face him with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes."

"Why don't you come to my house to have a cup of tea and explain what it was you were looking for Neil to help you with?"

* * *

"No, I don't think it's fair to say that the system of Paragons is fundamentally flawed. If you look at what actually happened, I think it's quite clear that the only reasons events went as badly as they did are that the betrayal came from within and that nobody could imagine the depth of the evil which was occurring." Stuart takes a sip of his tea to allow Sashi to respond, surprised by how much he's enjoying this conversation. She's promised what help she can give, and from the way she offered Stuart thinks she might have a few candidates in mind, if he can convince her that he's thought through everything.

"Aren't the Paragons themselves privileged with too much power and no oversight? Even ignoring what actually happened, surely there's something wrong with that?"

"Yes," and Sashi seems surprised he's agreeing with her, which she shouldn't be, because she has a valid point. "I want to correct some of that, by adding in a level of Parliamentary oversight, as well as by encouraging Paragons to a degree to monitor each other. But we also have to be wary of making the Paragons too centralized. As the system stood, if the Paragons hadn't been possessed they would have been under little obligation to obey Finn."

"They probably would have anyway. Many people were under little obligation to obey Finn, but did. But I'm not trying to talk about what happened, I'm trying to talk about what can go wrong when you have a group of people elevated above the rest of society as justice-makers who don't have much contact with each other and aren't held accountable for their actions."

"I'm going to try to address a few of those issues by having Paragons work in rotating pairs and change which planets they're responsible for. I realize corruption existed before Finn, but there were also some very good Paragons. Maybe, since we're starting over, we have a chance to rebuild the system without that corruption."

"Nice dream."

"Thanks." Stuart wonders if that means she'll give him her help now, and figures it won't hurt to ask. "Did you know any of Neil's students?"

"Yes. After Neil was killed, I thought it would be best if his students made themselves scarce for a while. But they thought they might be needed-not as Paragons, you understand-but to protect Kaurobe when it came to that. My husband-Neil's brother-took over their training, as best as he could. Of the three students, I think Kelly would probably-"

"I hope you don't mind if I wish to meet them all before I make a decision."

"Oh. Right. Of course not. Wait here."

Stuart eats a biscuit while he wonders how exactly he's supposed to make a judgement about these students. He took his father's recommendation because he trusts him. In the old days there would have been applications and committees and shortlists, but the infrastructure for that system no longer exists. Besides, Stuart admits, that system was far from perfect. When Stuart asked Douglas what he should do, all Douglas would say is that he trusts Stuart's instincts, which is a laugh. Stuart thinks he can compensate for a confused selection process by monitoring these new Paragons' progress as much as possible.

Sashi doesn't take long to return leading two young women and a young man. They carry themselves like soldiers and look like they know how to carry the swords hanging at their hips, a trait Stuart envies them. "Kelly, Marie, and Derek," she introduces them.

"A pleasure to meet you," Stuart says.

"You're the last Paragon?" Derek shakes Stuart's hand.

"Technically not so much just now. And hopefully even less so by the end of today."

"What do you mean?" Marie uses the question to dart around Stuart and grab a biscuit from the table.

"I'm recruiting."

Marie and Derek both glance at Kelly, who looks uncomfortable. "I'm not necessarily just looking for one candidate," Stuart adds, not wanting to put out the number he was thinking of because he wants to be able to evaluate each candidate without trying to fill a quota.

* * *

He returns to Logres with the three recruits from Kaurobe, one from Mistworld, and two from Malediction to begin the training process. It only takes ten minutes into the first training session for Stuart to be realize that he has no idea what he's doing and to make him very happy that he didn't try for more than eight students.

"Are you all right?" Kelly asks when he stands there for just a little longer than is probably normal, looking at them.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Stuart replies. "Ok. Since what I know of your skill levels is limited to what I saw against partners you've trained with, I'm going to mix things up a little. Jack, you'll be fighting Derek. Everyone else, watch."

It isn't easy for Stuart to take control, but he does what he has to (and he always has). He watches these new Paragons fight each other carefully, advising them at turns to be more defensive, or less, or to attack higher or maintain eye contact. The last time he had to teach swordplay it was to Rookery citizens preparing to fight off Finn's army, and it's such a relief to be teaching people who already know all the basics, and a good deal of the technique.

"Hey," he hears behind him, as Lianne and Derek clash swords.

"Jas," Stuart replies quietly, turning to briefly embrace him in a hug. Since his return from Malediction, Jas has been taking advantage of every opportunity that he can to be near Stuart, who's touched.

"How goes it?" Jas asks.

"Quite well, I'd say." Stuart keeps half an eye on the students sparring, and half an eye on those standing by the side. "I'm very impressed by where they are already," he says, half for Jas' benefit and half for the students'.

"So no work left for you to do?" Jas asks.

Stuart laughs silently. "I wouldn't say that," he mock-whispers back.

Jas laughs too. "I actually came here to ask you a question," he says.

Stuart nods. "Lianne! Derek! You two can stop. Well done," he says as they pass him.

"Thanks," Derek replies, while Lianne just nods, still trying to regain her breath.

"Your question?" Stuart prompts Jas.

"Douglas and Nina invited us for dinner. Well, us and Lewis and Jesamine, so it would probably be a really good idea if we can make it."

"Tonight?"

"Yes. If you're too tired though, or have more to do, we don't have to. I'm sure they can handle themselves."

Stuart smiles. "I'd love to. Let Douglas and Nina know to expect us."

"Great." Jas hugs Stuart again. "I better let you get back to work."

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate comments, including constructive criticism.


End file.
